Welcome to Duloc
by thisisfrithyo
Summary: A dystopian horror novella based in the town of Duloc. Donkey and his friend Melina have come to the town on a school trip, but something horrible lurks in the woods nearby. And it's coming for them. Don't make waves, kids.


**Welcome To Duloc: a short story**

Welcome to Duloc

such a perfect town

Here we have some rules let us lay them down

Don't make waves

Stay in line

and we'll get along fine

Duloc is a perfect place

Please keep off of the grass

shine your shoes

wipe your...face

Duloc is

Duloc is

Duloc is a perfect place

**Duloc Theme Song, **_**Shrek**_

As Donkey wandered into the square, he struggled to keep his eyes open. The journey from The Swamp to Duloc had been a tiring one, and the light from the sun exhausted his eyes. Donkey was a short, squat boy; he had big brown eyes and curly black hair. He had earned his nickname in school (fondly named the Swamp) when someone had tried to chicken leg him in the playground and his reflex was to kick straight backwards. Naturally, his laugh was also nearer to a bray than a giggle.

As Donkey looked around, he wondered how anyone could possibly choose to live in Duloc. He knew it well from fond stories his Grandmother told him about her childhood there; knew the fountain in the centre of the square, the singing information box and the various knick-knack shops all by description alone. But there was no life to it. Where were the singing children and happy faces his Grandmother had mentioned? The birds bathing in the shallows of the fountain and street vendors selling hot, sweet cakes and milk?

While Donkey considered this, his friend Melina came up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

'You alright, Donkey? You look kind of worried.'

'Yeah. It's just… this isn't anything like I thought it would be.'

'You mean from what your family told you? Duh.

I knew it would be boring. What do you expect from a school trip?'

Donkey shrugged. He knew Melina was right, really. Why else would a school bring a group of teens to a small, nondescript village if there wasn't something to learn from it? And in his experience of The Swamp, if there was something to learn it wasn't going to be interesting.

'Alright, children. Everyone find your buddies. No, Samuel, the post box is not a buddy. Hayley, stick next to Jenny. Nobody may swap partners, this is not musical chairs. ENOUGH.'

Once Mrs Wolfe had raised her voice, she had the full attention of the class. Everyone knew not to get on her bad side – while she might have been one of the more forgiving teachers, they didn't call her the Big Bad Wolfe for nothing; she'd huff, and she'd puff, and she'd sling your ass in detention for anything less than a perfect attitude.

'Right, everyone. Today we are guests in the town of Duloc. We have been allowed here by the Mayor of Duloc itself, specifically to write your history projects. With this in mind, I expect you all to follow the rules he has laid out for us.'

Mrs Wolfe ignored the groan that emerged from the crowd of pre-teens in front of her and continued her sentence.

'You will stay with your partners throughout the day. You will not knock on the doors of any locals. You will only go into the shops to ask them questions about the town, NOT to shop.' Mrs Wolfe directed this question towards a group of children at the edge of the crowd, already eyeing up the nearest boutique and checking their wallets.

'Finally. Listen up, everyone! You will NOT leave the town under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Outside of the town are the woods, and since that is off limits to locals, that means it is off limits to you students. Alright, you may go.'

With that, pairs of children began breaking away from the group and moving off into the town, looking in various windows and chattering happily as they went. Donkey turned to find his partner, naturally Melina, tapping her foot impatiently.

'Well? Where are we going first?' She popped her gum and raised an eyebrow at him, then grinned. 'How about the woods?'

Donkey was hardly shocked. it was just like Melina to hear a rule and immediately want to break it. Normally he'd be right along with him, but today something held him back.

'I don't know, Mel. Mrs Wolfe seemed pretty serious. I mean, why would the Mayor block off a whole section of land when his town is right next to it? There's gotta be something nasty in there.'

''Key, don't be such a wet wipe. It's a forest. If there were wolves and bears and stuff, they'd say that specifically. He's probably just got a holiday house in there or something that he doesn't want the locals to find and ruin.'

Donkey considered this. Melina had a point, surely it would be stipulated if there was a genuine threat? with that in mind, he sighed and grinned at Melina. 'Guess we'll have to find out then.'

The friends tried to appear nonchalant as they strolled back through the centre and towards the exit where the bus had parked that morning. Peering around to ensure nobody had followed them, Melina hurried across the car park and over to the edge of the forest. She looked back to Donkey and beckoned him over, trying desperately not to laugh at the dramatic show Donkey was making. Like 007, he kneeled by the wheel of one car before rolling on his side to another. Finally, singing Mission Impossible under his breath, Donkey joined Melina on the edge of one of the darkest, biggest forests he had ever seen in his life. The two teens moved slowly into the shade of the evergreens and looked around. surrounding them were bushes of green and brown leaves, with some beautiful blue flowers on them. Donkey looked closer and saw red thorns along the stems of each flower. Assuming it to be a rose, he jokingly picked one and handed it to Melina, who sighed and tossed it back onto the floor. Seemingly miles above them they saw the sky breaking through the canopy of leaves, shining dappled green and blue light onto the floor. It was while looking at these coloured lights that Melina noticed something odd about the ground.

''Key, look at these lines!' Melina ran further into the woods and Donkey hurriedly following, not minding breaking the rules but not wanting to be on his own while he did so. 'Look at them. What's that about?'

Donkey looked at the floor and saw what Melina was referring to. Crossed across the floor like pieces of string or breadcrumb trails, where lines of red drawn into the dirt. He noticed in fact that the path they had followed so far was also covered by a red line.

'Weird. I wonder what those are for?' he pondered. Before he could say anything else, he heard a shrill cry from behind them and winced.

'YOU GUYS. MISS SAID NOT TO COME INTO THE WOODS!'

Both the children groaned. It was John Lithstop, one of the most irritating suck-ups in their entire class. He was always the last to be chosen, hence why he had ended up partnered with Mrs Wolfe that day. Surprisingly though, she was nowhere to be seen.

'Oh, hello Johnny. Read any good books lately?' Melina popped her gum and smirked at John, staring him down at the same time. 'Where's Mrs Wolfe?'

'She went to find some coffee and trusted me enough to be on my own for a few minutes. Luckily for her, I SAW you two run across the car park so it would be wise for you to follow me so you don't get into more trouble.' John smirked back at them and folded his arms, clearly believing he had the upper hand and naively thinking this would get them to come with him.

'Yeah, Johnny, we're thinking no. It's so boring in there, and look,' Melina gestured around them, 'there are no warning signs or fences or anything – whatever's in here can't be dangerous or it would be fenced off!' She folded her arms back at John in defiance.

John looked around and raised his eyebrows in surprise. Melina wasn't wrong. So why would anyone tell them not to be in here? A stickler for the rules nonetheless, John stepped further into the woods and tried to coax them out. In an attempt to distract him, Melina pointed out once more the red lines crossing the ground.

'John, have you seen these? What do you think they're for?' Momentarily it worked, as John stopped reprimanding them long enough to think about this. he followed one of the paths a little further, then bent down to brush it away. Strangely, when he brushed his hand across the ground, the red did not move. Even when he moved all the floor debris away from a particular spot, the red remained. It was like God had taken a paintbrush and made each atom of the lines and the air around them, the ground beneath them, and each inch of their being, red.

Suddenly, the three children heard a sound. Twigs cracking. Leaves rustling. They turned towards the entrance and found nobody there. John stepped backwards.

_WHOOSH._

'What the hell was that?' shouted Donkey. It had sounded like a massive gust of wind.

Melina was practically crying with laughter. 'You two nearly wet yourselves! It was just the wind. Oh my God, your faces!' She wiped her eyes and look over to John.

'John, you can stop fake shouting now. I – JOHN!' Melina suddenly screamed. Donkey followed her horrified gaze to John, who stood quite silently, mouth open, with a crossbow bolt in his heart. Slowly, John sunk to his knees and fell flat onto his face. Dead.

Donkey screamed. Melina screamed. Then they both stopped as suddenly as they had started. Donkey clapped a hand over his mouth.

'Melina, what if someone finds us? They'll think we did it!'

'Don't be stupid, Donkey, do we have a crossbow? Oh my God, they weren't lying – there must be something in the woods. Someone. Someone that they're scared of. Someone dangerous.'

Donkey knew she was right. What did this forest dweller want, though? John hadn't done anything. In fact, he was only there to stop them getting into trouble. Donkey suddenly felt a drop in the pit of his stomach. It was his fault John had died. Whoever lived in that forest didn't want others there. And because of him, someone had followed. And now that someone was dead.

'Donkey, hello?' he turned and realised Melina had been calling him. 'We need to get back to the group and tell Mrs Wolfe. We have to go back.' He nodded, but when they turned around the entrance to the forest was nowhere to be seen.

Donkey didn't understand. There were only a few metres inside the tree line, no further than a minute's walk. How could they have gotten so far into the woods without moving? Suddenly he felt very cold and afraid. He turned to Melina, and grabbed her hand for comfort. He knew someone had to take charge, so he squeezed her hand and spoke.

'Mel, we need to find our way out. If we just turn around and follow the line we're on, that must lead to the exit, right? Let's leave markers so we can find our way back to…here.' he couldn't bring himself to say John's name knowing he was responsible for his death. He dropped a tissue a metre or two down the red line from John's body and kept moving with Melian closely behind.

After a few minutes, the children were still seemingly deep in the forest. There was no sign of the entrance they had come into the woods through, just miles of trees as far as the eye could see. Melina began to shiver and Donkey wished he had a jacket to give her. She sat down all of a sudden and began to cry. But before Donkey could so much as offer her a tissue, she screamed out in pain. Her leg suddenly spouted so much blood Donkey was surprised she didn't immediately faint.

'Melina!' he screamed, 'what's happening?' He tried to comfort her but she could only scream. He looked at her leg and realised it had a chunk of flesh missing from him. He had to keep himself from gagging when he realised it was a _bite_. Somebody had taken a bite out of Melina's leg and left her for dead.

'Oh my God, 'Key you've got to help me!' Melina sobbed. Donkey didn't know how he could possibly fix this, but remembered seeing something on a tv show once. He ripped his shirt off and tore it as best he could right down the middle. He tied it as best he could around the top of Melina's leg, tightly as he could manage and pushed the other lump of material onto the bite wound itself. He looked around, panicked, trying to seek out the offender and move them as far away from it as possible. Or, as far away from _them _as possible. He realised that the creature that had bitten Melina was probably the same creature that had killed John. He swallowed, sickened by the thought that this fact meant it had to be some kind of person. A thought occurred to him and he gasped aloud.

'Melina, move your leg!' He screamed. 'Melina, move onto the pathway now!'

'What?' she was still sobbing, but looked scared at his sudden outburst. 'Donkey, what are you talking about?'

'Just MOVE!' Donkey suddenly dove towards her and pulled her, including her injured leg, back onto the red line on the floor. Seconds after, another arrow came hurtling past them and struck the tree Melina had been sat in front of. He realised that it had been aiming for her. 'Melina,' he said slowly, 'it's the lines.'

Melina was wide-eyed as she realised what Donkey was getting at. Johnny had only been struck when he stepped off the path. Melina was bitten, and only on the leg, when she had sat with her leg over the red line. 'Don't make waves, stay in line.' Melina whispered to herself. It was the song. The musical information box said it for them. Don't make waves, stay in line, and we'll get along fine. They had broken the lines and they had paid for it. Johnny had died and Melina was close.

Donkey realised the only way to make it back to their classmates and The Swamp alive was to stay on the red lines until they found their way out of the forest. Realising Melina could no longer walk, Donkey picked her up and pulled her arms over his shoulders. He jumped and bumped her body higher up his back in a piggyback. She could no longer hold on with her legs and was slowly losing consciousness from blood loss. As quickly and carefully as possible, Donkey began to move along the red line in the direction he thought he exit was.

An hour later, Donkey was exhausted. Melina had passed out, and while he could feel her pulse it had slowed worryingly since he had tied the makeshift tourniquets. He felt Melina slipping from his back and jumped her up again for what felt like the hundredth time. Suddenly, his quick pace caught up with him and he tripped. He fell forwards onto the path but noticed with horror that Melina's body had rolled off his and onto the floor. A metre off the red path.

'No!' he screamed. Melina's body stilled and he began to panic, but saw her chest rise and realised she was simply still unconscious. Nothing had yet happened to her body but he was lulled into a false sense of security. Before he could finish a blink, blood poured from the side of her head. Another bite. A flash of movement and gone was her right hand. Another bite. Donkey could do nothing but scream as he watched bite after bite being taken out of Melina's body by some faster than light spectre until there was nothing but bones left. He sunk to his knees, sobs wracking his body. But the spectre was near. He knew. And he had to leave.

Donkey forced himself to stand up and run, half blinded by tears, along the red pathway. He looked up and finally saw a brighter light than before – the exit to the woods. He saw the school bus in the distance. He saw Mrs Wolfe gathering pupils into groups. He ran faster, his chest burning with the pain. But his body failed him. His ankle cracked and he realised he had stepped straight into a badger hole. He looked up, metres away from the exit of the woods, and about four metres to _the left of the path. _A shadow blocked his view of the exit. It was a boy. No, two boys. His vision cleared and he saw a group of people moving towards him. Marching in uniforms of blue. People? No. Children. There was something wrong though. These weren't children like the ones from his school. These were creatures. Monsters. Each of them looked exactly the same. One of them stepped forward and straight towards Donkey. As it unlocked its jaw to unimaginable size and Donkey sunk into unconsciousness, knowing his last moments were near, he heard the rest of the creatures singing softly.

'Welcome to Duloc, such a perfect town. Here we have some rules: let us lay them down. Don't make waves, stay in line, and we'll get along fine. Duloc is a perfect place.'

THE END.


End file.
